Dr. Phyllis Cassano’s story begins with two Italian immigrants and a mother who, after losing her husband and finding herself alone with a young daughter in a new country, made one decision that would shape both of their lives forever: they were staying in America.
Her father, Francesco “Frank” Cassano, was born in Calabria in 1899 and by the time he emigrated to the United States in 1922, he had already served in the Italian military. Remarkably – later he would serve again for the United States during World War II. In 1948, he returned to Cosenza, Calabria, for a wedding, where he met Phyllis’s mother, Rose Fusaro.
